


lorem ipsum

by eighthchakra



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-13
Updated: 2014-04-17
Packaged: 2018-01-19 05:33:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1457563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eighthchakra/pseuds/eighthchakra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times they met in cyberspace, and one time they didn't. The Blue Spirit and the Painted Lady should have measured their worth in blog views. Zutara. Modern!AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. fire

The Yuyuan Archers liked to eviscerate his arguments with quivers of pretentious wordplay and ostentatious flashes of rhetoric. He keyed in his parries and blows: Congratulations on your pidgin Greek. Pretty sure you know Plato more than he ever knew himself.

Zuko cracked his knuckles. Sardonic jabs would not win wide readership. (At this point, he was positive only Iroh pored over every essay). The vast expanse of the internet wanted blood. Blood or roses. Logicians and philosophers at Spirit-World-Dot-Com published their theories: the rabble-rousers lit the proverbial firecracker (oh, how Zuko abhorred their pointless analogies), but the idealists burned "forever in their hearts." 

His fingertips ghosted over the keyboard, ready to rebut the fever-dreams of some Painted Lady. How quixotic, how infantile her ideologies were. Charity work in far-off villages. Fund-raisers. Peace. Yet she seemed genuine, and that bothered him. His own impassioned pieces were only meant to provoke. 

Somehow, the Blue Spirit persona was of little comfort to him now.


	2. water

Virtual sermons on a mountain didn't have the biblical kickback that history promised them. Perhaps it was because not enough people livestreamed their bi-weekly discourse. (Dammit, how do TED Talks work?) Or, Katara mused, it was because they weren't on a mountain. Just a strange little town reeking of smoke and dust and pollution. Like all the other towns they've been to. At least mountains were poetic. Aesthetically pleasing. Instagram-worthy.

It had been a steady ascent to the blogosphere, at first. Their ragtag team drew support from bizarre CEOs and traveling bards ("Secret Tunnel" even reached the Top 40, according to a tweet). Aang was offered a clothing line ("If you can't be the Avatar, dress like him!"). Some film director wanted to give Momo the "big break he deserved." Her brother hoarded free samples of everything, from shampoo to paper clips.

But internet vigilantism became everyone's sideline, and the Painted Lady was losing clout. Sokka was losing his patience. Mostly, Katara blamed the fluctuating WiFi signal.

"A few tricks with fish and pills won't save the world," Sokka told her.

She was adamant: "No, they won't. But Aang will."

"This messiah thing is what's precisely suffocating the Painted Lady," he said. (Toph gave a resounding "yeah"). 

"You sound like the Blue Spirit," Katara huffed, "All rebuttals and conflagration." 

"Good. At least one of you forum trolls makes sense."

.

The Painted Spirit's comeback post was only a palliative (activists claimed to be pro-equality, but they were anti-well, mostly everything). Even Katara thought it was bullshit. 

So did 397 readers (196 of them ex-supporters), and the Blue Spirit.  

"It's solipsistic to think that the world would not turn without you," the Blue Spirit wrote, "but welcome back." 

"Thanks for the warm welcome," Katara fumed, "What kind of demagoguery have you been up to while I was away?" 

"The usual. Bringing down capitalist extremists like Zhao and Shinu. And, you? Find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?"

Katara clenched her fists. Engaging in verbal duels with the Blue Spirit made her seem petty. But perhaps she was. Perhaps Sokka was right. 


End file.
